Our First Australian Christmas

We made it through our first Australian Christmas and I have to say that I am pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it. I was having a hard time getting into the spirit initially but the weekend ended up being really nice. The festivities started with the live nativity in downtown Perth which was really awesome complete with real camels carrying the wise men. Brayden particularly enjoyed it and it was amazing for me to watch him see the Christmas story come to life before his eyes and be able to really understand the true meaning of Christmas.

Christmas Eve morning started off with a skype visit with Greg, Amanda and the kids and we had an early presents opening time with them. Although we couldn't be together it was still really nice to watch them open our gifts to them and vice versa. Gotta love skype. Then we hit beach for a couple of hours followed by a Christmas Eve party at our place with many of our new friends down here. Christmas Eve was spent assembling a 8ft trampoline for Santa which I am happy to say only took a couple of hours. (we had heard horror stories about how long it takes)

Christmas Day was just lovely although very HOT. It was our first Christmas morning with just the 4 of us and it was actually really nice. I have never had a Christmas morning without either grandparents, brother, sister...etc...and I expected it to be lonely and really be missing home, but I have to say spending the morning with just my 3 boys was nice. Of course now that the kids are both old enough to get it there was excitement and tearing of paper... was great family time. Then we got to skype with Mom, Dad, Lys, Grandma C, Matt, Jen and Ewan! The boys had fun showing all of their new presents to the Mittlers and it was great that they were still able to be a part of our morning. We then went over to a friends house for Christmas dinner (lunch) and thankfully they have a pool because it was close to 40c. We ate in the air conditioned house and spent the afternoon having cold drinks in the pool.

Boxing Day we hit the golf course as Brayden was eager to try out his new clubs we got him for Christmas. We brought some plastic clubs and a ball for Dylan and all four of us went out there for a round. It was another hot day but as luck would have it there is a local pool right next to the golf course and so we spent the afternoon playing in the water to cool down. That night we figured we needed to complete the holidays with seafood on the BBQ for dinner and it was delicious. So all in all I think we have this Australian Christmas thing figured out. We do however still want the kids to remember snow and winter so the evening was spent watching the Mighty Ducks movie. Yes I realize this is an American movie set in Minnesota, but they are playing hockey, there is snow and the main character kid is Joshua Jackson who is Canadian so hey..it works.

I hope everyone had as great of a Christmas as we did. I will post pics as soon as they are downloaded from the camera.

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas...NOT

I have been trying very hard to get into the Christmas spirit this year. House is decorated, tree is up, took the kids to see Santa and we have been listening to lots Christmas music in the car and watching classics like Frosty and Rudolph...but I still am not feeling it. The weather is hot, the malls are air conditioned, kids are out of school on summer holidays and because it stays light later into the evening you don't get to see many Christmas lights on houses...not that there are many to see anyway. I really do not miss the snow and cold but it is the one time of year when I find it tolerable. There is just something about seeing Christmas lights reflecting off the snow...building snowmen with the kids on the front lawn...going for a hay ride and then having hot chocolate and warming up in front of the fireplace. We have many Christmas activities this week so hopefully those will help...Gingerbread house making with the Canadian Club, live Nativity downtown with real animals, neighbourhood Christmas BBQ and then we are hosting a Christmas Eve party. We are also planning a nice Christmas dinner with our friends and then a swim in their pool followed by hitting the beach to watch the sunset. We might as well embrace the change right? Lets just say the song "I'm dreaming of a white Christmas" has a whole new meaning to me this year.

Time for a catch up

Ok, I admit it - I am very slack at this blogging thing. I had big plans to update it at least every month and bring you all the latest and greatest of the Maybee family adventures here in Australia. But as you are well aware....this has not happened. Lets try to bring you up to speed as to what we have been up to lately.

We have been to Sydney on vacation with my parents. Lots of run, but TONS of rain. Seriously it rained the entire time we were there except one bright and sunny day, which happened to be on

my birthday.

My parents are presently here and we have had a blast showing them around our new city, swimming in the ocean, having lunch with some Kangaroos (prior to this my Dad didn't beleive there were Kanga's in Australia because after a month here, he still had not seen any so I rectified the situation by taking him to John Forrest Tavern which always has wild Kangaroos lounging around. )

Brayden is playing tee-ball, hockey and taking surf life lessons at the beach. He is turning into quite the athlete and even won the magic moment trophy at tee-ball this week for his impressive fielding skills at first base that got 2 outs!! He has inherited the Maybee love for hockey and literally counts down the sleeps until he gets to play again. His skating has improved so much that it is hard to beleive that 4 short weeks ago this was the same kid who refused to go on the ice because everyone else could skate better.

Dylan is taking swimming lessons and loving it. He and I are enjoying our weekly routines of playgroups, swimming lessons, trips to the park, music class and grocery shopping. We checked out a couple of pre-schools this week which he may be going to one or two days next year while I work.

For those of you who have not heard, I am now also a Lecturer with Curtin University. Starting in the new year I will be teaching the online HR course in the MBA program. Online is perfect for me as it is a nice way to start teaching, and it will allow me to still be home with Dylan the majority of the time. Its an interesting career move for me so we'll see what becomes of it.

Bryan is getting ready for his PhD defence back in Canada this week. He has been working very hard the past couple of months both with his courses and his thesis so he is looking forward to a nice break over the Christmas holidays. We are likely going to do some traveling around the west coast.

I think that is the update in a nutshell...hopefully 3 more months won't pass before I write again.

Pictures of our new house

Playroom - you can see the guest bedroom at the top right
Kitchen
Boys room
Dining Room
Living Room

Front

New Home

OUR STUFF IS HERE!!! After almost four months of living out of two suitcases each we finally have our furniture back. It was like Christmas morning here as we excitedly opened up box after box to see what it contained. We were pleasantly surprised to see many of the boys toys here given we thought most of them had been left behind in Toronto and were coming on the second shipment in a month or so. There are still a few things missing a left to come of course. They made sure to get our bikes on the first shipment because they figured in Australia we would want to use them frequently - and they were right. However, they did not ensure our bike helmets got on and as such the only one who has a helmet is Brayden and that is because we bought one for him when we arrived...sigh. So it looks like the rest of us will have to wait a few more weeks to go for a ride.

The house is coming together nicely and all of our things fit which was a bit of a concern. The kitchen actually doesn't look too bad now that all of our things are in and the bathroom has been decorated with all of our lighthouse stuff so it has improved greatly. (for those of you who know Bryan and I well you know we both have a thing for lighthouses - likely because we met in Halifax and made many trips out to Peggy's Cove).

Once we are all set up I will take pictures and post a virtual tour of our new home.

Happy Canada Day!!

Canada Day

This is my first ever Canada Day outside of Canada. In honour of the day I figured I would do up a little list of some of things I miss about Canada. (For those of you who follow both of our blogs I 100% acknowledge that I am totally stealing this idea from Katrina as she did something similar to this when she first moved to Taiwan!!)

Obviously what I miss most about Canada are my wonderful family and friends - this goes without saying and so I did not put it on my list because it clearly over-rides everything else. Ok, here we go - and these are in no particular order.

The cottage

Because it is Canada Day which I would typically spend up at the cottage (both Jack Lake and Wollaston) I am very much missing not being there this year. I miss watching the early morning mist rise of the lake.; The call of the Loon; waterskiing and boat rides; campfires and spider dogs; and spending time with family and friends.

Autumn

We got here right at the end of "fall" beginning of winter and although there were some trees with coloured leaves it is not the same as the brilliant oranges, reds and yellows that we get with a Canadian fall. Autumn used to be one of my favourite seasons for this reason and I do miss that I am not going to get to see that for a few years.

Coffee - specifically being able to go through a Tim Horton's drive-thru, ordering my standard medium regular and needing no more than a loonie and perhaps a quarter or two. Let me break this one down for you as there are several parts to it.

First - the drive thru part. There are a handful of drive-thru coffee places here but they are few and far between. It just isn't the same type of coffee culture here that you have in Canada where you basically can't go more than 10 minutes without finding a Tim Horton's. Not to mention you have to wait a long time to get your coffee if you do find a drive thru because it takes so long to make - none of this waiting freshly brewed pot stuff (see number two)

Second - Medium regular - coffee with one cream and one sugar. They do not have regular drip coffee down here - all coffee is made with those fancy coffee machines they have at starbucks with the steamers etc. Your basic coffee options are a long black or a flat white (coffee with steamed milk). We do have a drip coffee machine at home but both of us enjoy our coffee with cream and you cannot buy coffee cream down here. It has been suggested that I try buying whipping cream, and skim milk and mix then together to make my own half and half but that seems like a lot of effort for a cup of coffee. And so I have gotten used to drinking flat whites when out, and coffee with milk at home but it just isn't the same as my Timmys!!!

Third - a normal size coffee down here will run you somewhere between $3.50 and $4.50. Often this depends on whether you want it to stay or take away. I don't know about you, but if I am spending $4.00 on a coffee it better be a Grande Vanilla Latte not a regular coffee with steamed milk.

Familiarity of restaurant chains

I am going to qualify this one because you all know that I love trying out new foods and new restaurants and I enjoy encouraging my children to do the same. However, it is tough when you are in a new city, and do not know where the family friendly restaurants are. It takes a while to search them out and while we have found a few that are amazing (sandboxes, play structures or toy boxes in the restaurant) we have also had nights where we had to drive to several places to find one that fit our needs. On these nights it would have been very comforting to see the familiar sign for Swiss Chalet, Boston Pizza, Red Lobster etc, where you know the environment and food is going to be the same no matter what franchise you are in. That being said, the exploring aspect is also fun and on nights where the kids are game to try something new, we have enjoyed some great different foods and found some wonderful new places.

Costco - We do have Kmart, the Big W (basically a regular walmart) and Target. But I do miss being able to go to one store and get groceries and household items, and clothing, and my contacts etc. There isn't really any bulk shopping down here that I have found. I quite enjoyed my former stash of non-perishables and my meat in the deep freeze. It kept me from having to go grocery shopping every week which when you have small children can be an entire event.

Triscuits, Goldfish, Red Rose Tea and Activia Yogurt - There are alternatives to most things, but none that I have found to the list above. Of course there are other brands of yogurt and tea but sometimes you just want to be a creature of habit and enjoy your favourite brand.

So those are just a few little things that I miss about Canada. There are many differences down here but also many similarities and on the whole, if I had to be living anywhere other then Canada I am glad that I am here. The people are friendly, the weather is amazing and the lifestyle is relaxed and family focused.

So on that note Happy Canada Day everyone!! Brayden was very excited to bring his Canadian flag to school today for "news" and tell his mates all about Canada. We are spending the evening with another Canadian family who has just arrived in Perth so it will be a nice evening.

We found a house!

Well we finally found a house and we are moving in 3.5 weeks. Our furniture has arrived in Perth and has cleared customs and quarantine so we are good to go. It has been a bit of a humbling experience the last few months living with the bare minimum. It made me realize that what we need, and what we want/enjoy having are very different things. It really has made me appreciate how blessed we are with the things that we have.

The house is in Floreat which is a suburb of Perth. It is about a 10 minute drive from where we are now, a 5 min drive from the beach (no more ocean sunsets out our dining room window though - that is the one thing I am going to miss about this apartment) and a 10 min drive to Brayden's school. Initially I wanted a house within walking distance of the school but we were not able to find anything nice in our price range with the features that we were looking for (3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, garage etc).

When we first drove up to our house I knew right away it was meant to be - there is a big maple tree in the front yard (or the Australian equivalent of it.) I personally cannot see the difference between these leaves and the maple leaf - it is in the same tree family for sure!! It has a garage with a built in wine cellar, 3 bedrooms (with a 4th bedroom/huge walk in closet off the master), 2 bathrooms, decent size back yard, playground down the street and lots of kids around. The only thing I wasn't wild about was the kitchen. It is big enough but it is dated - brown cupboards and yellow counters - yuck!! But i figure I can cover the cabinets with the kids art work and my counters are always covered in stuff anyway. And it has a dishwasher which was on my list of things I wanted. Plus the house came with a fridge, washer and dryer which most of them don't. So all and all it fit the bill for what we wanted. And really, we are renting it, not buying it!!

Unfortunately we had to take a lease on our current apartment until the end of August so please pray that we are able to re-lease or sublet it so we are not stuck paying double rent for a month. Not the end of the world but just a waste of money. Of course they decided this week to start fixing some things around the apartment so now there is scaffolding and dust everywhere. Not great for any potential newcomers. Ahh well, what will be will be. Our stuff arrived safely, we have a house we like and we are enjoying ourselves so far in our new city. That is all that really matters.

I don't have any pictures of the house yet but I will post some once we move in. In the meantime here is a couple pictures of Brayden at his school assembly. Not sure if you can tell but the auditorium is actually outdoors! They were allowed to wear whatever they wanted that day - no uniforms. So Brayden and a couple of his "mates" wore their West Coast Eagles jerseys (Australian Football League - Footy). They were showing off their art work. Their teacher is an amazing artist and does the most wonderful art projects with them. Brayden's has a fantastic portfolio of artwork. This art work was inspired by the style of Eric Carle's illustrations (The very hungry caterpillar). Brayden's is a Koala. I love it an can't wait to bring it home, frame it and put it on the wall next to our pictures of Bryan and I holding Koala's.

The house hunt continues

So our house hunt continues. We have looked at probably 50 or so houses and still haven't found one that feels like home. I know we will find it, but in the meantime we are continuing to look at everything and anything in search of "the one". It isn't all bad though, we have gotten a good idea of where we want to live and what we want. And today, our house hunting ventures led us to another Canadian family!! While looking at an open house this afternoon there was a man, talking to the real estate agent and did not have an accent!! So he and Bryan started talking and turns out he is from Alberta, and here in Perth on a house hunting mission before his wife and two sons move down here with him at the end of July. Ok, now here is where it gets really cool...he and his wife are BOTH working for Curtin University - same Uni Bryan is teaching at...AND they have enrolled their two boys in East Claremont Primary school - Brayden's school. How is that for a crazy twist??!! So we exchanged numbers and they are going to give us a call when they get to town and settled. So we can never forget our dear Country as we seem to find little glimpses of home everywhere - including the kids stores. Check out these rugby shirts I found for the boys last week!!

Other then that things are going well here. We have been keeping busy doing various things. The boys and I went to the Dora the Explorer stage show and they LOVED it. It was actually a lot of fun and seeing their faces light up when the show started was well worth the price of admission.


Bry is getting ready for his first teaching block next week. Brayden is still enjoying school and is no longer the new guy as a new little boy started today!! Dylan and I are enjoying various playgroups, music classes and trips to the park (many, many trips to the park). But we have met lots of new friends and I am loving being home with him.

Happy Birthday Brayden!!

I can't beleive my little man is 5 years old. I vividly remember 5 years ago being up at the cottage for the May long weekend, when Brayden decided he was going to make his appearance. Some days it feels like just yesterday and other days I find it hard to remember a time when he wasn't in our lives. We had a VERY busy birthday weekend down here. Or should I say Brayden and his busy social calendar had a busy weekend. He was invited to 2 birthday parties this weekend for kids in his class, one on Saturday and one today. We had the Canadian Club social this afternoon, and then we were invited over for dinner at another friend's house. That dinner was complete with cupcakes, and singing and birthday presents. Spending the evening with new friends celebrating with Brayden was a perfect end to a wonderful and busy birthday weekend.

The Canadian Club social was a lot of fun as well. About 50 Canadians - adults and kids talking about home, life in Australia, hockey, Tim Hortons! Some people pulled out guitars and fiddles and we had some good east coast music to listen too. It was a really good time. I have to say, I was a little worried about being lonely when we first started talking about moving down here. But we have just been blessed to meet so many wonderful people so quickly - many of whom have already invited us into their homes for meals. It really helps make this new city/country feel more like home. Don't worry though - I am still a Canadian girl at heart and always will be!!

Our arrival in Perth

We are finally in Australia!! After a long flight over here - well actually 3 long flights we arrived in Perth. The kids were amazing on the plane ride over. Seriously I couldn't have asked for more. We crammed our 17 bags of luggage into our rental car (seriously crammed - I was sitting with my legs around my chest because there was a large suitcase at my feet) and made our way to the hotel where we took the kids swimming, ate dinner and passed our by 6:30pm. Needless to say the kids were then up at the crack of dawn the next morning. We found our way to our new home for the next 4 months. A furnished apartment right across the street from a beautiful beach. There are 3 playgrounds within walking distance from our house, and we get to watch ocean sunsets every night at dinner. Not too shabby for the next four months until our things get here.

Brayden wanted to start school right away and has already been to the fire station and the zoo with his class. He wears a uniform which he really likes, and spends more then half his day outdoors as the "gym" and "auditorium" times are all outside. The other moms at his school are all very friendly. I think he is going to be the first one to pick up an Australian accent as he is already repeating words and number games from school with a hint of an accent. It is quite cute and I will have to get it in on video. His social calendar is filling up as he has already been invited to a birthday party, and a playdate at someone's house.

I have successfully mastered driving on the left hand side of the road and Dylan and I have been having fun exploring all that Perth has to offer. This city is very family focused and there are playgroups, kids clubs at the mall, story time at libraries as well as a playground/park on every corner, not to mention the beach. I have met several other moms in the course of my travels and have gotten a few phone numbers - yes I have picked up mom friends ha ha.

Bryan is enjoying his job so far and seems to be settling in. He doesn't have to actually teach until June so he is working on developing a course right now in preparation. So so far we are really enjoying our new city and settling in well. We do miss everyone back home of course and hope to have some more skype chats soon now that we actually have internet at home.
Miss you all!!

Last few weeks in Sudbury

Its been an interesting few weeks here in Sudbury. Our furniture was moved out two weeks ago which means we have been living with the bare minimum and camping out in our house. I am talking air ma tresses and eating on camp dishes on the floor. I make my tea by boiling water in a pot and then pouring into my cup. But all in all it hasn't been too bad and we have made it through pretty well. Our house is still for sale which is a little stressful but we are trying to stay positive about it. At this point it doesn't look like it will sell before we take off.

We got the word yesterday that our things are on their way to Australia. Unfortunately they could not fit everything in the shipping container but instead of calling us, they just randomly left boxes out including ALL of the kids toys. I am really confused as to why no one felt the need to pick up the phone and ask us what items they should remove. We had a couch and love seat that we debated not even taking with us and told the movers that we would leave it behind if there wasn't enough room but they assured us it would all fit. Still waiting on answers back about what communication channels broke down and what we can do about it. Thankfully the remainder of our things are in Mississauga and we are going to Toronto next week so we can retrieve them if we are not able to get them shipped out. Talk about an added frustration that we didn't really need.

I had my last day of work today which was sort of surreal. I have spend my adult life thus far working for Sudbury Regional Hospital. Bryan and I were not even engaged when I started there...lots has happened in the past 8 years. It was a wonderful job to start my career - I am going to miss it. But perhaps not too much once I am relaxing on the beach in Australia!! :-)

I took pictures of the movers loading our stuff and our house in boxes which I will post soon. We have a few more days left in Sudbury and then we will be in TO until the 30th when we fly out.

Countdown is on

Well we are T minus 8 weeks to departure and things are starting to happen. Thankfully our Visa's were approved very quickly so we were able to relax and enjoy our family cruise and trip to Disney (pictures to be uploaded later, they are on the other computer.) Now we are back and the holiday is officially over. If anyone has ever put your house on the market before you know how challenging it can be to try and keep it clean for showings at any time. Now combine that with 2 small children, unpacking and laundry from vacation, and trying to figure out what to pack for the next 4 months to live with since we are hoping to ship our furniture next week. Can you say STRESS! I am trying to take it all in stride and just take each day by day but you all know I am a bit of a worrier. We have lists upon lists of things we need to sell, things we need to cancel, people we need to notify. And I am sure the next few weeks are just going to fly by. I welcome advice from anyone who has gone through this (namely Kath, Katrina and Jen - come on...spill your secrets)

Feeling nostalgic already

We watched the opening ceremonies of the Olympics last night. It was very emotional for me to watch my country hosting the Oympic games, and feeling a sense of pride to be Canadian, and knowing that we are leaving this country for a few years. It was quite a range of emotions that I was going through. We might be taking this girl out of Canada but you will never take Canada out of this girl!!

We met with the moving company yesterday to talk about the logistics of moving our things down to Australia. Apparently it is going to take at least 3 months so our plan is to move our stuff as soon as possible, live with the bare minimum here for a while so that when we get down there we don't have to wait too long to get organized. We also talked to our real estate agent today about listing the house which is very hard for me. I love this house, this neighbourhood, this street... if we were staying in Sudbury I would have no desire to live anywhere else. I am likely going to cry when we put the for sale sign on my lawn. But despite all the range of sad emotions that I am going through right now, I am also excited to get down there, meet my new neighbours, check out Brayden's new school, go to the beach, take a picture of Brayden and Dylan standing with a Kangaroo and put it on the wall beside a picture of them beside the big nickel! ha ha

Feeling official now!

Things are starting to feel very official now. I know, we signed the papers and officially accepted the job, have submitted our visa application and told our respective employers. But it really didn't feel real to me, until last night when our bank where Bryan set up an account for us, called to ask us some questions about the account. I don't know about you, but we get calls all the time from Royal Bank, TD bank, Scotiabank...mostly call centres asking us whether we are satisfied with our banking. You know you are officially moving when a bank in a whole other country starts calling you. Anyway, that is what made it real for me.

Bryan has had a very productive time down there. Scouted out some good neighbourhoods, a great school with partial french immersion so Brayden can continue on learning to parle en francais!! He even found out about a mom's group for me!

I have been busy making lists, what goes, what stays, who we need to call...all that fun stuff. Time is going to go by very quickly I think.

First try at Blogging

Well now that we have made the big decision to move to Australia I thought I would set up a blog to share our adventures with you. As the months leading up to our move come I will try to capture the "fun" of packing up a household and family and moving across the world.